The Founder of collapsed British electric vehicle (EV) battery startup Britishvolt has said the UK’s battery manufacturing industry is “doomed” unless the government steps in.

Orral Nadjari, who stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Britishvolt in August last year, said: “Nobody was there to help Britishvolt.”

He added: “The industrial policy in place lacks real foundations and wasn’t conducive to growth.”

According to the Financial Times, the auditors of the failed company, EY, are currently under a lot of pressure to finalise the process to find a buyer.

Last Thursday, shortlisted bidders were told they had been selected to potentially take over the battery manufacturer.

Australian startup Recharge Industries with a reported £30 million bid for Britishvolt is among the leading contenders.

Reports claim that David Collard, the entrepreneur behind Recharge, toured Britishvolt’s site at Blyth on Friday.

Britishvolt had previously been planning to build a £3.8 billion gigafactory.

Darren Jones, Chair of the Business select committee, said: “If Britishvolt collapsed because it couldn’t attract private investment, had no customers and didn’t meet requirements for taxpayer funding, then the worst thing the administrators could do is to sell the site to another company that fails on all these tests.”